Andrew Leigh

The Irish Government is making great progress in tackling multinational tax avoidance; isn't it time our government did the same?

MEDIA RELEASE

IRELAND ACTS ON MULTINATIONAL TAX LOOPHOLES - WILL AUSTRALIA?

Joe Hockey’s inaction on corporate tax avoidance has been thrown into sharp relief by the Irish Government’s announcement that it is phasing out that country’s most notorious tax loophole.

This week Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan announced that Ireland would put a stop to ‘Double Irish Dutch sandwich’ tax arrangements.

These complex arrangements involve companies transferring money between subsidiaries registered in Ireland and European Union countries such as the Netherlands.  

Multinational companies have taken a big bite out of the Double Irish Dutch sandwich in the past, with one major technology firm alone reportedly using the loophole to avoid $3.4 billion in tax since 2007.

But while the Irish government is closing tax loopholes, Joe Hockey has re-opened significant ones in Australia.

His decision to ditch Labor measures tackling transfer pricing and improving transparency has effectively handed $1.1 billion back to big global firms.

Joe Hockey has also made Australia a laggard on implementing the Common Reporting Standard for financial account information by pushing the start date out to 2018.

While other nations are now forging ahead to tighten their tax systems, Australia is retreating from making companies pay their fair share.

Mr Hockey needs to stop catering for the big end of town, and start serving up something that will help struggling families.

We’ll know that the Abbott Government is serious about fair taxation of multinationals when it announces measures that add to revenue, rather than forcing Australians to stomach cuts to pensions, family payments and universities.

FRIDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2014

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